Fraud of parking fees denied

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration has denied allegations of the embezzlement of parking fees collected city-owned parking company BP Perparkiran.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja in his statement revealed to the City Council in a plenary session yesterday said that the total amount of parking fees paid to the city administration by the company appointed to manage parking in the city tallies with the number of receipts.

Djoko Brotosurjono, the head of the city inspectorate office assigned to investigate the case, said that his office found no irregularities in the amount of parking fees handed in.

"From the results which are reported, there is no manipulation found," he told reporters after attending the plenary meeting with members of the city council.

In response to a question of there still being one more stage of investigation, he said that another step will be taken, but he declined to clarify further.

Tb. M. Rais, the deputy governor responsible for the city's development affairs, said the city administration is still looking for the best parking system for the city.

He said the municipality will be very careful in making a decision regarding the parking system.

He said the city administration will not hastily accept proposals offered by private companies regarding the management of a parking system.

Some of the companies suggested "parking with prizes", a system which would offer attractive prizes in an effort to encourage motorists to insist on parking attendants giving them parking receipts, therefore allowing the authorities to better monitor the revenues collected from parking.(32)